Firearms accommodate firing a bullet (or other projectile) from a cartridge filled with a propellant charge, inserted into a “chamber” of the firearm which, when ignited, creates a high pressure, high temperature gas. This high pressure gas is contained by the cartridge and the chamber of the firearm, so the path of least resistance is to push the bullet into a barrel of the firearm, located in front of the chamber. The sides of the bullet are in direct contact with the wall of the barrel, where there is also typically “rifling,” which causes the bullet to spin, thus increasing accuracy. The bullet is forced under this tremendous pressure of the expanding combustion gases behind and it eventually exits at the muzzle, at the distal end of the barrel where the barrel ends. As the bullet exits the muzzle and begins to travel freely through the air, this high pressure, high temperature gas exits behind it and immediately begins to expand in all directions. This burst of expanding gas essentially functions like a rocket and pushes the gun directly back by Newtons Third Law of Motion. This force is resisted by the users hands and arms and thus the firearm “kicks” up and back. In pistols and revolvers, this backward and upward movement is commonly called “muzzle flip” or “muzzle rise.”
This recoil is highly undesirable as it throws off the aim of the user. As this recoil action eliminates the users “sight picture” and the alignment of the firearm with the target, the user must take time after each shot to regain control of the firearm and then carefully re-align the sights. As stated above, it is this destruction of the sight picture and the critical delay in reacquiring it before firing again, that endangers the user, any innocents being protected and possible innocent bystanders. This delay can also mean the difference between winning or losing in professional shooting competitions.
Handheld firearms, both semiautomatic pistols and revolvers, are used for competitive sports, personal defense and by law enforcement and the military. In all of these uses, being able to accurately, rapidly and repeatedly direct a projectile to a target is paramount. Especially with handguns, which shoot a less powerful bullet, failure to achieve rapid fire accuracy can be a great danger to the user and any innocents who the user is attempting to protect. In addition, innocent bystanders may be in danger from stray shots occurring due to the recoil effect throwing off the aim of the user.
Accuracy is achieved by properly aligning sighting devices of different sorts that sit atop the firearm. When a firearm is discharged, an explosive blast of expanding gases exits the front of the barrel, causing a “jet” effect that thrusts the firearm backward toward the user holding it. This force, blocked in its backward momentum by the user's grasp, causes the muzzle end of the firearm to violently rotate upwards and backwards, in the “muzzle flip” or “muzzle rise” phenomena. This action eliminates the users “sight picture” and the alignment of the firearm with the target. Thus the user must take time after each shot to regain control of the firearm and then carefully re-align the sights. As stated above, it is this critical delay that endangers the user, any innocents being protected and possible innocent bystanders.
That there is a paramount need for devices to control this “recoil” effect has been widely accepted. For many decades, such devices, usually called “muzzle brakes” or “compensators” have been manufactured in attempts to control the recoil effect. The current devices available are less efficient than desired and tend to be bulky and expensive, as well as potentially interfering with the function of the gun. For these and perhaps other reasons, such muzzle brake devices are only seen on a small fraction of pistols and revolvers available commercially and are especially rare or non-existent on police or military weapons. Although “muzzle brakes” are seen more commonly on rifles, the prior art is similarly less efficient than desired.
In the case of semiautomatic pistols, installing a typical prior art “muzzle brake” or “compensator” requires the user to first purchase a special, extended, threaded barrel. The user must then purchase the muzzle brake separately, which screws on to the end of this special barrel. Great care must be taken to screw the brake on to the proper depth and position and it must be secured properly or there is a risk it will come loose during repeated firing, possibly endangering the user and other bystanders. Many consumers will pay additional fees to a professional to assure proper installation.
These prior art muzzle brakes or compensators consist of a square or round piece of metal with multiple and various arrays of what are called “ports,” “baffle plates,” “slots” or “fins.” The common belief is that these elements “strip off” the expanding gases from around the bullet and “redirect” them upwards and to the sides and therefore lessen the “felt recoil.” It is also believed these baffle plates, when struck by the expanding gases, can “push” the gun forward to help counteract the backward effect of the “recoil.” Some of these devices are two or three inches long, with multiple “ports” and “baffles.” Particularly when considering handguns, adding almost 25% or more onto the length of the gun and adding on considerable weight and length makes such a device less practical, especially for legal concealed carry or for professionals in law enforcement and the military.
Scientific research has shown that these prior art devices achieve at most about a 30% reduction in recoil forces. This is primarily because the prior art muzzle brakes do not use true propelling nozzles that are scientifically designed to facilitate and maximize the conversion of heat energy into velocity. True propelling nozzles have a “throat” where hot compressed gas is introduced into the nozzle and a single, smooth, curved nozzle with diverging and enlarging sides facilitate the hot compressed gas to increase in velocity. The propelling nozzle then smoothly directs this hyper velocity gas in a specific direction to create thrust via Newton's Third Law of Motion. In contrast, the baffle plates, fins, square bottomed slots, ports, etc., actually interfere with this process. These obstructions create, in the words of rocket science, “friction, flow disturbances and shock losses” which interfere with the expansion and increase in velocity of the gases. However, it is exactly the increasing velocity of the combustion gases that create the “thrust” available to beneficially counteract recoil. What is needed to properly utilize the full potential of the high pressure, high temperature gases is a “propelling nozzle”, as is used for rockets, but specially adapted for use on firearms. Such a propelling nozzle can create useable “thrust” through a specific shape and structure that facilitates the conversion of heat energy into velocity and thus into maximum thrust. It is this velocity (and associated mass of the gas) which transfers momentum to the firearm and can thus create thrust as the now high speed gas exits the end of the propelling nozzle. So in prior art devices, these obstructions slow down the expansion of the combustion gases, thus actually decreasing the thrust needed to effectively counter recoil.
Many prior art devices have “ports” or holes directing the expanding gases to the sides. This wastes the energy available in the gases that could be used to properly push the muzzle down. Others have square bottomed or flat bottomed holes or slots that set up a “shock wave” pattern within the device, rather than smoothly redirecting the power of the gases to their proper use of controlling recoil. In the true propelling nozzles of jets or rockets, designs do not have structures such as baffle plates, ports or other holes, but rather have a smooth, curved expanding diameter nozzle that allows the expanding gas to reach maximum velocity. The high velocity gas is then directed in the direction needed to push the rocket or aircraft in the desired direction. Similarly, if a hand gun recoils upwards, then all the gas should be smoothly redirected into a large jet of gas which flows upwards to push the muzzle end down.
Another type of prior art muzzle brake is made by directly cutting small holes or slits into the barrel of the gun itself, directly into and through the “rifling.” The idea is that this bleeds off high pressure gas pushing the bullet down the barrel and redirects it upwards. Although this method does not add bulk to the gun, it is relatively inefficient due to the size of the ports or slots being too small. Also, such holes do not gradually enlarge like an efficient nozzle. Rather, by bleeding off gas before the bullet has actually exited the barrel, such designs can actually slow down the velocity of the bullet which makes the firearm less effective and useful overall.
Most state of the art devices, due to their inefficiency and method of attachment, create additional bulk and weight on the front of the gun. This makes such devices less practical to use for legal concealed carry and undesirably heavy for prolonged use such as in law enforcement or the military. The bulk and weight actually can also potentially interfere with the functioning of the gun and can cause it to jam and cease functioning. Also, prior art devices, while providing limited efficiency and greater bulk and weight, can cost up to or over half of the entire original cost of the firearm, in the case of a typical handgun, when the cost of the brake itself, the special extended barrel and professional installation are added up.
For the above reasons, prior art muzzle brakes or compensators have not seen broad commercial success and have not been seen as any type of standard for handguns. Other than limited use in high end, specialty competition shooting matches, such brakes are seldom used, and rarely if ever on the semiautomatic handguns used by law enforcement or the military.
In contrast, the invention described herein below, particularly for semiautomatic pistols and revolvers, is uniquely effective, achieving measured reductions of recoil of up to 70% and have in some instances been able to achieve 100% reduction in “muzzle flip” or “muzzle rise” if properly tuned. By being machined or formed directly into the barrel of the firearm during manufacturing (in one embodiment), it creates no additional weight or bulk and only a slight increase in length. Extra length is the least intrusive of size issues when considering legal concealed carry or carry by law enforcement or military users. The expense of adding in this feature during the modern CNC machining and manufacturing process is very minimal. Alternatively, consumers who already own firearms could simply buy a replacement slide which includes this feature. A number of companies already offer “after market” slides (without any such brakes built in) which cost considerably less than the purchase of a separate barrel and screw on muzzle brake, of the type currently available.